


Mac + Paperclip Deltas + Homecoming

by NephilimEQ



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Banter, Canon Divergence, Complete, Fluff, Humor, Idiots in Love, Jack comes home, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Reunions, outside pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25891396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NephilimEQ/pseuds/NephilimEQ
Summary: Jack was stamped all over Mac’s life without Desi ever realizing it…but at that moment it had become as obvious to her as if Mac had Jack’s name tattooed on his chest, saying “Property of Jack”.Or also known as the episode that should have been, where Desi realizes that Jack was what was missing from Mac's life.
Relationships: Jack Dalton/Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 158





	1. Chapter 1

** Mac + Paperclip Deltas + Homecoming **

Desi knew exactly why she and Mac had broken up. But she also knew that Mac didn’t know why. As much as she had been charmed by him, as much as she had been pulled in by his intelligence, along with the way he always seemed to light up every single room that he stepped into…she knew why things had gone downhill.

This first night they spent together, actually sleeping in the same bed, staying the entire night, Mac had started to talk in his sleep, his body going taut with tension.

And the words that he’d muttered…

_“No, let him go…let Jack go, please…”_

When she had first heard it, Desi had been about to shake him awake, familiar with those types of nightmares. But then…

_“Take me instead. Please…don’t…Jack…god, Jack…never said how much…I can’t lose you…please, Jack!…”_

And her hand had stilled inches from his shoulder. In the dim moonlit bedroom, she had glanced around it and suddenly felt like an idiot for not realizing it before: Jack was stamped all over Mac’s life without her ever realizing it…but at that moment it had become as obvious to her as if Mac had Jack’s name tattooed on his chest, saying “Property of Jack”.

Over the next few months, it built up, bit by bit, and she knew that Mac had no idea what was going on, but she also knew that he was completely oblivious as to how he was acting. Instead of seeing Mac, whenever they went on a date and he wore that one cologne of his, she suddenly had flashbacks of Jack wearing that same cologne whenever they had gone undercover for formal events, and it was suddenly Jack standing there, giving her advice on how to mix drinks, and not Mac droning on about a new project.

Whenever Mac was out in the garage, working on the GTO, which, of course, was Jack’s, she would walk out there and hear Metallica on the radio and every single time, she fully expected Jack to slide out from under the car, and she was always disoriented when Mac would slide out from under it, wiping oil off his face with the front of his shirt.

Which was one of Jack’s, of course. Some old band from the eighties.

Desi knew that it was stupid, that it was expected that some of Jack’s things would linger around Mac’s house; they had been friends for nearly eight years when Jack had been called on the mission to go catch Kovac, so it wasn’t all that uncommon to find friends who maybe shared a shirt or two, or left a car for the other to take care of.

Or that Jack had left his entire movie collection behind and that Mac had slowly moved it all over to his house in the first few months that Jack was gone.

Pretty much all of it could be explained away through the fact that the two of them had been close friends for so long.

But then there had been that first moment, where it had started to sink in about just how much Jack meant to Mac, and how he was really dealing with Jack being gone.

The one moment that she still couldn’t shake.

It had been the whole team out on Mac’s deck, the fire in the firepit going strong, and even Russ had been there, standing in the corner, talking to Matty about something that had them both softly smiling, and then Mac had stood up and asked if anyone wanted another beer, and nearly everyone had nodded, and then he’d suddenly said…

“Great! Hey, Jack, can you come and help…”

And then his voice had abruptly stopped, and then drifted, and everyone acted as if they hadn’t heard it, but Desi had seen something in Mac’s eyes darken so quickly that it had taken her completely off guard. She had _never_ seen him go from happy and lightly buzzed, to stone cold sober so quickly.

In fact, now that she thought it over more closely, Mac never said Jack’s name. Which was odd, considering Jack’s favorite painting hung on the wall of his house, just behind the polar bear. And that Jack’s cigar box rested right next to the bed, on Mac’s nightstand, and that when he thought that Desi didn’t notice, he pulled out Jack’s father’s dog tags and would talk to the man as if he was there. She had seen it once or twice, and then had realized it was always on days where Mac seemed to be more quiet than usual, so she started avoiding him on those days.

And then the final straw had been one of the last times that they’d made love. Mac had been over her, while she was on her hands and knees, usually a favorite position for both of them, and then just as his hips had stuttered to completion, she’d heard him breathe against her neck, “Jack…”

She was certain that Mac had no idea what he’d said, and she knew that if she called him out on it, he would deny it until his dying day.

So, when nearly a year later he confronted her in the club where she worked, she finally called him out on it, accusing him of bad taste that was identical to her old partner’s, saying, “Your adolescent obsession with eighties pop! Your terrible taste in movies!” and so on.

And he _still_ didn’t seem to get it.

During their first case after the Phoenix had been reformed under Russ, she had been driving and complaining about the car that Mac had stolen during their getaway, and then Mac had given her a look and said, “Low profile family mini-van is perfect,” and Desi had flashbacked to her first car hijacking under Jack’s command, and him saying the exact same thing to her.

And now she stood in the war room at the Phoenix, listening to their briefing on their newest mission. She took in the information that was pertinent to her, blocking out everything else. That was how she functioned best: filter out information that was non-essential to her and would only distract her while in the field. She glanced over at Mac, who fiddled with a paperclip as he perched on the arm of the couch, Riley on the seat next to him.

Desi glanced at his hands. Another habit of his that she couldn’t _believe_ that she’d ever found endearing.

When he was done, she recognized the insignia before he suddenly tucked it into his pocket. The delta insignia.

From the way he hid it so quickly, she had a hunch that he hadn’t been trying to make it on purpose, but that he’d just been trying to keep his hands occupied. It made her wonder whether he’d ever thought of her as a separate person from Jack, or just a substitute for what he couldn’t have.

Shaking off the thought, she put her attention back on the screen, focusing on what Matty was telling them.

“So, now that I’ve briefed you on your mission, I have some news,” she said, and Desi picked up on her tone, as did everyone else in the room. Their boss took a deep breath, gave them all a faint smile, and then said, “Using my contacts, I have found out some very _good_ news. Kovac has finally been taken down, as of two days ago.”

Mac’s head snapped up at that, and Desi saw a spark in his eyes that she had never seen before in the entire time that she’d known him, even when the two of them had been together.

“Wait…does that mean…?” he breathed out, but then was cut off when Desi’s hand instinctively went for her sidearm when she detected sudden movement from the doorway into the war room, and then everyone’s heads turned when a familiar Texas drawl said, “Well, things have certainly gone to hell in a handbasket since I’ve been gone, haven’t they?”

Riley was the first one to react, rushing Jack and practically jumping into his arms, and he easily caught her and wrapped a hand around the back of her head, the other on her side, while she bear hugged him around his waist.

“Hey, crazy girl,” they all heard him say. “Miss me?”

She pulled back and Desi grinned when the hacker said, “Nope, not one bit. In fact, now that you’re back, I’m pissed because that means that I don’t get the GTO,” and Jack laughed and shook his head and said, “Oh, darlin’, you were _never_ getting’ that car. You know I left that to Mac…”

Speaking of Mac, Desi looked over at him, but he seemed frozen as if not quite believing what was right in front of him.

Slightly annoyed, she stepped forward after Bozer had given him a hug, and said to her old teammate, “Thank god, you’re back. You owe me over a year in babysitting money,” she quipped, and he snorted and quipped back at her as he pulled her into a friendly hug, “What, they not payin’ you enough?” and she laughed and returned his friendly hug with a faint squeeze, and then as soon as she pulled back, she looked back over at Mac, yet again.

He hadn’t moved an inch since Jack had walked in. He seemed frozen to the spot.

Desi watched as Jack then softly said, taking a step towards the boy genius, “Hey, Mac. What…no hug?” and spread his arms towards him.

That seemed to break the spell.

Suddenly, Desi watched in some amusement as Mac nearly bowled him over with the same amount of energy as Riley, but with entirely different emotions. Instead, he had one arm wrapped around the Delta’s waist, and the other was up around the back of neck, holding him tightly to him as if he never wanted to let him go, his face pressed into the older man’s neck. Desi couldn’t help but smile when she saw Jack return the hug just as fiercely, his own face pressing into the younger man’s nape.

She heard Jack mutter, “Nice haircut, hoss,” his fingers brushing along the back of his neck affectionately, and Desi was certain that she heard Mac sniffle, choking back tears, and she glanced over at Matty and saw her looking at the two men with a faint, knowing smile on the corner of her lips.

Everyone simply stared for a moment, and that was when Desi realized: they had been a team with her, but with Jack…they were family.

The spell was broken when Matty cleared her throat and said, “Nice to have you back, Dalton, but, as per usual, your timing leaves a lot to be desired,” and at that, the two men slowly pulled back from each other, Jack already complaining with, “Aw, now, that ain’t fair, boss! I mean, I _told_ you that I wanted to surprise everyone!”

Mac seemed to come out of his daze at his words, because he ran the back of his hand across his eyes, wiping away faint streaks, and then faintly echoed, “Boss…?”

Desi grinned when Jack grinned at Mac, seeing a spark of humor in his eyes that she hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Yeah, that’s right. I mean, so long as you don’t mind havin’ someone buggin’ you constantly when you’re out in the field again,” he said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans, and then added with a roll of his head, “Oh, and by the way, I’ve managed to have the same phone for over a _year_ now, and I’m gettin’ _seriously_ bored with it. Next time you wanna take it apart for one of your schemes, feel free! It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a free upgrade.”

And at that, Mac chuckled and got out, “Well, we do have a mission. Here’s your chance,” and then guiltily glanced back at her, as if only just remembering that she was in the room.

She didn’t take it personally, and simply raised her hands and said, “Hey, I’m perfectly fine with Dalton taking my place. If it means I get a few days off, have at it,” and not a single part of her was mocking in any way, as she sincerely meant it. She knew how to watch Mac’s back…but Jack knew how to keep him safe.

There was a big difference.

She settled herself into the far corner and watched as Matty then gave them the rest of the information, and Desi watched as Mac kept on looking over at Jack, as if not quite believing that he was back and that he was standing right there in the room with him.

Jack started making jokes, causing Bozer and Riley to roll their’ eyes at him, but with each and every joke, Mac laughed, though he pretended to be annoyed, and Desi just silently shook her head, finally seeing what had been missing from Mac when she first met him.

_This._

He was smiling.

Sure, he’d smiled when the two of them had dated, had even laughed…but those smiles were _nothing_ compared to the look on his face right now. Right now, Mac was looking at Jack as if he had hung the sun, ducking his eyes when Jack looked back at him, and then Desi saw the look on Jack’s face, too. God. He was just as in love with him as Mac was with him, if not more so, and now that she could see it, she wondered if everyone at the Phoenix had known all along?

They didn’t even _try_ to hide the open affection between them, and as she followed everyone out of the war room, she watched as Jack absently ran his fingers along Mac’s lower back like it was nothing, and the way Mac gently batted the back of his hand against the delta’s chest, every touch between the two of them instinctive, not even thought about, like a language just between them, and she felt like an _idiot._

Mac had never been physical with her in front of other people, saying he wanted to keep things professional at work, but this…this went _beyond_ friendship.

These were intimate touches of two people who knew each other in ways that no one else did, and Desi felt a faint stab of guilt at knowing that she had been the one to encourage Mac’s affection towards her, even when she could see that his heart wasn’t entirely in it, thinking that he was just shy, but now she knew better.

His heart had already been taken.

She lingered in the doorway, watching the team head to the jet, and Matty stopped right next to her, both of them looking after the four of them as they joked around, looking brighter than she had ever seen them, and then she looked down at Matty, who looked up at her with an odd glint in her eye.

“So…Jack’s back, huh?” was all Desi could think of to say, leaning against the jamb and crossing her arms over her chest.

Matty gave her a faint smile.

“Yeah, looks like.”

There was a long silence between the two of them, and then Matty said, “Desi…you have been an amazing asset to this team, and, if you want, you can continue to be,” but she shook her head and dissuaded her with, “No, don’t worry about it, Matty. I did this as a favor to Jack, and I did my job.”

Matty nodded, and then said, “Not that I’m not grateful to you, Desi. Because I am. We all are,” she reassured her, but then she said, “But you have no idea how happy I am that Jack is back. And not for me, or even for the rest of the team…but for Mac.” She went quiet for a moment, and then added, “Something that Jack told me a long time ago about Mac is that he tends to get lost in his head sometimes, and that he can spiral. And that it gets really bad, and that part of what Jack does is pull him out of those spirals.”

Desi thought about what she said, and then nodded and commented, “Like a self-destruct that can only be undone by knowing where to cut the right wire.”

“Exactly,” said Matty, giving her a slightly amused, but still sad look. “Recently, I’ve started to worry about Mac. Not that it’s any of my business, but when I heard you two had broken up, I hate to admit that I was…relieved.” Desi didn’t take it personally. “The two of you were like one of Mac’s bombs: unstable, at best, and liable to explode.”

She nodded and admitted, “You have a point. We only ever got along in the middle of a crisis. Probably not the best relationship.”

Her boss nodded and then said, “Jack has always been Mac’s grounding wire, and he’s been looking for a new one ever since Jack left. But now that Jack’s back, I think he’ll come back down and be grounded again. Jack is the best fit for him of anyone I have ever seen,” she said the last part softly, as if she hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and then proved it by adding, “If you tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it.”

Desi just chuckled and nodded.

And then she couldn’t help but ask, “How long have they been in love with each other and not known it?”

At that, Matty laughed and looked up at her and answered, “Pretty sure it happened all the way back in the sandbox, because the two of them have been like that ever since I’ve known them together. Back when I worked with Jack, you know, before,” she gestured, and Desi knew she was referring to their’ CIA days, “He was always a cheery guy, looking on the bright side of every situation, and I thought I’d never met such a cheerful pessimist in my life.”

Desi laughed out loud at that, fully appreciating the best description she’d ever heard of the odd man that she’d known for years.

“And then I saw him with Mac,” Matty said, her tone going soft and fond. “He wasn’t just happy around him, Desi.” They locked eyes. “He looked like he’d finally found where he belonged. Like he was home. Like…even if he never made it back to Texas, he’d be fine so long as he had Mac.”

She let out a soft sigh, and Desi gave her a long look…and then said, “I’ve never seen that smile on Mac before.”

Matty gave her a wry grin.

“You mean his ‘your joke wasn’t really funny, but I just can’t help myself’ smile?”

Desi nodded and added, “The one that makes him look like an overgrown golden retriever?” Matty nodded, and Desi commented, “Yeah, it's the first time I've seen that smile.”

Matty nodded right back at her and said, “That’s the smile reserved for Jack and Jack alone. You spend enough time around them, and you realize that Jack’s the only one who can get that smile out of him. And it’s kind of adorable how neither of them seem to see it, too. Though a little bit sad, too…”

The two of them shared a look, and then Desi pushed off the door and turned to head down the hall.

Just as she was about to leave, she said, “Tell Mac I said good luck.”

And she left, feeling better about Mac than ever before. He was in the right hands, and with the person who would keep him safe in the best way. As she stepped out of the Phoenix for the last time, she thought back on her experiences over the past year…and then smiled to herself.

Jack was home.

And Mac was finally home, too.


	2. EPILOGUE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So....here's the second chapter/epilogue that everyone wanted! After this one, no more! So...ENJOY!!! 
> 
> (btw, wrote nearly all of this chapter in about two hours)

**EPILOGUE**

Desi scrambled through her bag, trying to find her spare gun, but then realized that she must have left it at Mac’s place the last time that she had stayed the night there. She pulled out her phone and pressed the speed dial that she still had his number on. It rang countless times, and then finally kicked over to his voicemail, but she didn’t bother to leave a message. She knew for a fact that despite all of his technical skills, Mac _still_ didn’t know how to check the messages on his voicemail.

Instead, she tucked her phone back into her jacket pocket and slid onto her motorcycle, deciding it was probably just best to head on over to his place and bother him there.

Ever since Jack had come back, however, she noticed that Mac wasn’t as much as a homebody as he’d been during the time that she’d known him and was out pretty much every weekend over the past few months. Sometimes laser tag, other times to some odd new robotics exhibit in downtown L.A., but always with Jack.

Sure, she knew that Bozer, Leanna, and Riley joined them on occasion, but she also knew from Riley that Jack and Mac always arrived together and left together from those group outings.

Desi was just glad that Mac was smiling again.

She sprayed gravel as she took a turn slightly too sharp, and quickly leveled out the bike and refocused her eyes on the road, trying not to get too distracted with thoughts of her teammates. It wasn’t official, but she and Riley had been spending a lot of their time off work together, and they’d had a few really nice dates.

Desi knew that she was falling fast for the woman, which took her a little bit off guard, because she didn’t fall for anyone all that easy, be they a man or woman, but she really liked what she had with Riley and wouldn’t trade it for the world. Yes, it was a little awkward, knowing that she was dating someone that Jack thought of as his daughter…but she didn’t really care. Riley was a no-nonsense, kick ass woman, with a secret soft side that only Desi had seen: her collection of turtle plushies on her bed, in every single color you could think of. And they all had names.

She grinned under her helmet and then paid close attention for the turn that would take her further up the hill to Mac’s place.

As soon as she took the turn, she revved the engine slightly, pushing it hard to go up the steep incline.

She approached the house and saw the GTO sitting out in the driveway, which took her off guard. What on _earth_ was Jack’s pride and joy doing in the driveway? Why the hell wasn’t it tucked safely away in the garage, where he _insisted_ that it stay so it wouldn’t be damaged by the elements?

Apprehensive, knowing the penchant for trouble that Mac tended to have, Desi parked in front of the house and approached it on foot, reaching up and snagging the spare key from the carefully hidden spot next to the top of the door in a removable brick marked with the date of Einstein’s birthday.

The instant she unlocked the front door, she was on guard and her hand went to the gun that was already at her hip.

A chair was knocked over, one of the pictures on the wall down the short hallway was askew, and she saw several items on the floor that looked scattered. This was _not_ normal for Mac. He may have been scatterbrained, yes, but he wasn’t messy. Actually, he was kind of a neat freak, yet another reason why the two of them hadn’t worked out together, she thought to herself as she carefully stepped over a couple of strewn magazines that looked like they had fallen from the kitchen table.

As Desi made her way into the main room, gun in her hand, she heard an unexpected sound, and she went still. It was Mac’s voice, that much she was sure of, and it was coming from the direction of his bedroom.

She couldn’t make out what he was saying as it was too muffled, but it sounded like he was struggling, as if he was being attacked.

Coming to a quick decision, knowing that a locked front door meant nothing, as Murdock had made it into the house through a locked door and then locked it behind him, she stealthily made her way down the hallway, gun out, mission mode activated, ready to take down whoever was behind that door.

Just as she was about to kick the door in, she heard the headboard make a loud rap against the wall and then heard him cry out, “Ah, fuck, yes, right there, oh…fucking shit, yes…Jack!”

Oh.

_Oh._

Thanking the gods above that she’d heard them in time before embarrassing all of them, she put her sidearm back into its holster and looked at Mac’s bedroom door with an amused grin. Apparently, Jack had finally made a move on him. It was about damn time.

She didn’t know why, but she felt compelled to stand there a little bit longer, and through the door, she heard…

“Oh, god, Mac, baby…you feel so good,” Jack groaned, followed by a low grunt and another rap of the headboard, to which Mac replied, “Just…just don’t stop, please…please…oh, fuck…”

Desi didn’t know why she listened to them having sex, but there was something about it that wasn’t just hot, but also incredibly sweet and reaffirming. Mac had always been fairly quiet with her in bed, though enthusiastic, but this…she’d _never_ heard this before. And it explained so much about him.

He'd always been so tightly controlled with her, but with Jack he sounded uninhibited and free.

“Oh, god, holyshit, holy fuck, yeah, right there!”

 _Really_ free.

She heard Jack let out a breathless laugh, and say, “Must be doin’ somethin’ right,” and Mac chuckled and then groaned, and she knew that they had definitely found the right person for each other. She and Mac had never been lighthearted in bed, not enough to laugh about it, at least, and they sounded like not only were they feeling good, but having fun, too.

Desi then noticed one of the drawers on the side table near her hip was partially open and caught a glimpse of familiar metal. Her spare gun. Staying as quiet as she could, while unable to keep from grinning as they kept on going, she slid it the rest of the way open and tucked it into her ankle holster. And, my god…Jack had some _serious_ endurance. Good thing she’d gotten over her crush on him in the first month of knowing him, because _that_ might have changed her mind.

But just as she turned to head for the front door…

“Ah, god, Jack! Fu--uck!”

Mac then let out that strangled sound from his throat and she knew that he’d just…well…finished.

And then she heard the bed squeak a few more times, Jack’s groans becoming labored, and then he groaned long and hard…and then she heard, “Ah, fuck, Mac…god, I love you, sweetheart,” and she paused. She _really_ shouldn’t be listening to this…but she couldn’t turn away.

Through the door, she heard Mac breathe out, “I love you, too, Jack.”

She gently pressed her palm to the door of his room and then finally turned and walked out of the house, locking the front door behind her and putting the key back where it belonged.

As she drove away on her bike, her gun secure against her ankle, she thought back on what she had heard. Even though she was happy for them, she felt a faint taste of bitterness in the back of her throat as she wondered if it could have been possible for her and Mac to get to that point…but she shook that thought off as soon as she thought it. No. Mac belonged with Jack. She knew it. Despite the ‘what-if’ that lingered, she knew that they were perfect for each other. Besides, she liked what she had going with Riley.

The instant she was back at her apartment, her cell phone rang.

“Hello?”

 _“Hey, girl,”_ said the girl who had just been on her mind, sounding upbeat, and Desi smiled at hearing her voice. _“I’m heading over to Mac’s to drag him out of the house for the weekend. There’s a really killer convention in town and they’re showing off some seriously awesome new tech and I thought you could join us. Wanna come along? They’ve got some new gun prototypes that allow you to program the bullets for certain trajectories…”_

She chuckled and replied, “As awesome as that sounds, hon, I would _not_ advise going over to Mac’s right now. I, uh…let’s just say that he’s got company.”

Riley snorted and shot back, disbelievingly, _“Company? Like, a girl? Nice try, Desi. Mac’s not the type to--”_

She cut the girl off.

“Not a girl, Riles. Give you one guess.”

There was a long pause, and then Desi grinned when she heard her laugh and say, _“Jack finally made a move?”_ and Desi nodded and said, “Yeah, he sure did. And, uh…they kinda messed up the house along the way, too,” and she smiled when she heard Riley laugh a second time.

 _“Oh, that’s too good. But I get what you mean, I shouldn’t go over there. But…you_ know _I have to do something to embarrass them, right?”_

Desi rolled her eyes, and said warningly, “Look, I know you’re going to do something, babe, but don’t make it mean, okay? And don’t do it in front of the whole team. Keep the embarrassment to the minimum and not in public. Understand?”

 _“Copy that, captain,”_ she quipped, and Desi returned with, “That’s major, to you, sweetheart,” and Riley chuckled.

But then Riley asked a question and the mood of their conversation shifted.

_“You think it’ll last between them?”_

Desi didn’t hesitate.

“Pretty sure they’re in it for the long haul. I think they’re kinda perfect for each other, actually. Can’t think of two people more…suited.” There was a long moment of silence between them, and then she added, “Mac and I were a mess for each other, couldn’t communicate, couldn’t really get it together in the world outside of work. But him and Jack really get each other.”

_“Two idiots who’ve been pining over each other for years. I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with the longing glances when the other isn’t looking anymore.”_

She laughed at that and then said, “How about you come over to mine and we can take my bike to the convention?”

Desi could practically hear Riley’s smile when she answered, _“That sounds like a great plan. Gimme twenty minutes.”_

And with that, they hung up. Desi decided to wait outside and so leaned against her bike, arms crossed over her chest, and stared out past the parking lot up in the direction of the road that lead to Mac’s house in the Hollywood Hills. She wasn’t lying when she said that those two were perfect for each other.

She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh and closed her eyes.

Things were finally falling into place.

\--

The next day, all of them met up for brunch at a locally run coffee shop, and Riley shot Desi a knowing grin as Jack and Mac walked into the coffee shop side by side, Jack’s hand quickly dropping from Mac’s lower back as they came through the door, and Riley rolled her eyes while Desi tried to silently tell her with her own eyes to be quiet.

“Hey, guys,” Mac said, settling down into the seat across from them as Jack went up to the counter to put in their order.

Bozer sat at the end of the table, folding a napkin, and he said, “Think you can make a paper airplane out of a napkin, Mac? I’ve been trying for the last ten minutes and it just won’t work.”

Mac rolled his eyes, but then smiled and drawled, “Give it here,” and Desi watched with humor in her eyes as Mac proceeded to somehow break the laws of physics and make a functioning airplane out of something that should not have been able to hold it’s shape.

As soon as Mac finished it, he turned and aimed it right at Jack’s shoulder.

It hit, and the Delta turned around, arching an eyebrow at seeing the plane at his feet. He looked up and pinned Mac with a look.

Mac just shrugged, grinning unrepentantly, and Desi snorted when Jack just shook his head and reached down and tucked it into his front pocket.

Riley then suddenly said, “Oh, my god, can you two _stop_ it? Yes, I get it, you’re having amazing sex and enjoying being a couple, just _stop it_ with the goo goo eyes!” she groaned out, and Desi nearly laughed out loud when she saw Bozer’s expression, his eyes widening almost comically wide. “God, I think this is even worse then when you two were silently pining after each other,” she added, reaching over and grabbing a napkin of her own to fiddle with.

Mac gaped at her and Desi shot her an admonishing look.

Riley just shrugged.

“What? What’d I say?”

Mac then finally seemed to find his voice and he managed to get out, “You…you know? How, how, how…how the _hell_ do you know already? Do you have listening devices in our phones or something?” and Riley shook her head and just looked at Desi pointedly, and Desi groaned. She was going to _kill_ Riley.

When he looked to her for an answer, she let out a put-upon sigh and admitted, “I swung by your house yesterday to look for my spare gun. While I was there, I might have heard the two of you…you know. I got my gun and got out of there, was barely there for two minutes,” she said, letting a little white lie slip through. “When I got home, Riley called, said she was going to visit you, and so I kinda had to warn her off. I wasn’t going to _say anything_ about it,” she said pointedly, giving Riley yet another look, but she ignored it and continued to play with her napkin, “But since Riley has let the cat out of the bag, well…yeah.”

Mac just looked at her, eyes still wide, and then Jack was back at the table with two coffees and several cookies.

He placed one in front of Mac, unaware of the tension, sat down and said, “Hey, what’re you all talkin’ about? You all look…odd. What’s goin’ on here?”

Desi swallowed, unsure of what to say, but luckily they were all saved when Bozer suddenly seemed to process the information and he said much too loudly, “You and Jack are a couple? Dude, what the hell?! When were you going to tell me?”

Jack was frozen mid swallow of his coffee and Desi wished she could take a picture of the moment, but she knew that he would kill her if she did.

Mac let out a long, frustrated sigh and then reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose as Jack swallowed his sip, and then whirled on his boyfriend and said incredulously, “Mac, I thought we were gonna wait to tell them! What the hell, man?”

He glared at Desi.

“It’s not _my_ fault! Desi! You want to explain it again? Please?”

He sounded desperate.

..But instead of repeating it, she just raised her eyebrow and said, “Nah, this is more fun,” and leaned back in her seat and watched as Mac practically fell in on himself and felt Riley bursting into laughter next to her, while both Bozer and Jack looked at Mac for answers to their questions.

Finally, after about five minutes, Mac had answered both Jack and Bozer’s questions, and he was now glaring over the table and her and Riley, but she couldn’t help but grin. Yes, it had been a little bit mean, but she had to poke _some_ fun at their expense. They all had a coffee and either a cookie or a muffin, and Bozer seemed to be much less upset, as well as Jack, who had now slung his arm around Mac’s shoulders, and he seemed much more relaxed than before.

Finally, Desi said, “Okay, Mac, you can stop glaring at me. I’m sorry, alright?”

He grumbled something under his breath.

“What was that?” she couldn’t help but ask with a slight grin, and he then snapped, “Oh, you better be sorry, Des. You really just broke into the house?”, to which she rolled her eyes and said, “I used the spare key, you idiot. Remember you told me where it was for emergencies?”

At that, he gaped, and Jack chuckled next to him, squeezed his shoulder and said, “She’s got you there, Angus,” and Mac blushed furiously.

Riley looked practically gleeful as she commented, “Oh, so it’s Angus, now?”

Mac’s head snapped up and he quickly defended the Delta.

“Only Jack gets to call me that, and not all the time. No one else, understood?”

She raised her hands in surrender and replied, “Hey, it’s all good! I understand. Only Jack.”

And with that, an easy peace settled back over the table and they soon were talking and joking back and forth like they usually did on their Sunday brunches, making plans for their day. Desi smiled as she saw Mac reciprocating Jack’s touches, his hand finally settling over Jack’s left thigh, fingers curled protectively just above his knee. They were good like this, she realized, seeing Mac looking freer than she’d ever seen him before.

Usually there was a faint wrinkle between his eyes, even when he was supposedly relaxed, always thinking, always worrying, but now it was nowhere to be seen. He leaned effortlessly into Jack’s touch, as if he’d been waiting for years to be allowed to, and their bodies constantly gravitated towards each other without thinking.

Jack, too, looked lighter than Des had ever known him to be.

And that was when Desi knew that they had both been holding back from it for so long, that now that they could do it, it felt like they could breathe.

She watched as one of Mac’s hands delved into Jack’s coat pocket and pulled out a paperclip, which he then twisted into the Delta insignia, yet again, and then smiled when she saw Mac deftly slip it back into Jack’s pocket without him noticing, obviously putting it in there for him to find later, and she felt her heart reach out to them. Never had she been more glad to be wrong about a relationship before in her life. It was obvious that they belonged together.

As they all stood up to go, she heard a yelp and she looked over and up just in time to hear Mac say, “Did you just pinch my ass, Jack?”

He grinned back at him.

“Sure did, babe.”

Mac opened his mouth as if to say something more…but then snapped it shut and just shook his head and rolled his eyes and she heard him mutter as they headed for the door, “Incorrigible,” to which Jack replied, “That’s why you love me, man.”

“Unfortunately,” Mac drawled back at him, and at hearing Jack’s squawk of indignation, she just shook her head.

Oh, yeah.

They were made for each other.


End file.
